The two leading state broadcasters, Bangladesh Television (BTV) and Bangladesh Betar radio, function as government propaganda outlets with no editorial independence, as does the state-owned national news agency, Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha (BSS). The private sector media landscape includes 3,000 print media outlets, daily or periodic, 30 radio stations – including some community radio stations – 30 TV channels and several hundred news sites. The popular private television channels Jamuna TV, Somoy TV and Ekattor TV previously supported the regime of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina but now refrain from criticising the interim government. The country’s two leading dailies, the Bengali-language Prothom Alo and the English-language Daily Star, manage to maintain a certain editorial independence.

Since the country’s independence in 1971, successive governments have treated the media as a communication tool. The government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, from 2009 to 2024, was no exception: censorship, cyberharassment, pressure from military intelligence services, judicial harassment, a series of draconian laws, police violence, and assaults by ruling party militias... Sheikh Hasina’s government relentlessly multiplied the obstacles facing journalism. Given these conditions, newsrooms carefully avoided challenging the government and resorted to self-censorship. On August 5, 2024, this tyrannical regime fell after several weeks of massive student demonstrations which were brutally repressed. An interim government, led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus, has been tasked with reforming the country. 

A few months before the national elections on 7 January 2024, Sheikh Hasina’s government introduced the Cyber Security Act (CSA), a poor copy of the Digital Security Act (DSA), one of the world’s most draconian laws for journalists. Specifically, it allows: searches and arrests without a warrant; the seizure of electronic equipment; violation of the confidentiality of sources on arbitrary grounds. In this environment, newsroom editors routinely censored themselves.

Most of the leading privately owned media are owned by a handful of great businessmen who emerged during Bangladesh’s economic boom. They see their media outlets as tools of influence and profitability, and to that end, they prioritse good relations with the government over safeguarding editorial independence. Many newspapers are still dependent on state funding from government advertising and imported newsprint for printing.

Although defined as a secular country in the constitution, Bangladesh recognises Islam as the state religion. This ambiguity is reflected in the media, where anything relating to religious issues is off limits. The mainstream media never address the issue of religious minorities, although they number 10 million in Bangladesh. In the past decade, radical Islamist groups have waged extremely violent campaigns that have led to the murders of journalists. These groups now use social media to track down and harass journalists who defend secularism, the right to alternative opinions and freedom of religion.

Exposed to police violence, attacks by political activists and murders orchestrated by Jihadist or criminal organisations, Bangladeshi journalists under Sheikh Hasina’s regime were all the more vulnerable because this violence went unpunished. The DSA and the CSA were often used to keep journalists and bloggers in prison, in appalling conditions. In the political purge that followed the fall of Sheikh Hasina, over 130 journalists were subjected to unfounded judicial proceedings, notably on charges of “murder” and “crimes against humanity,” and five were detained. The profession is still dominated by men and women journalists are exposed to a deeply rooted culture of harassment and are subjected to online hate campaigns when they try to publicly defend their rights.